Department for Transport

Regional Airports

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the regional economic effect of (a) Birmingham Airport, (b) Manchester Airport, (c) Glasgow Airport, (d) Edinburgh Airport, (e) Newcastle Airport and (f) Bristol Airport.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Government’s Aviation Policy Framework, published in March 2013, recognised the contribution that airports across the UK – including all those listed by my Hon. Friend – make to the local, regional and national economies, and the important role they play in securing connectivity for local populations.

Birmingham Airport

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of extending the runway at Birmingham Airport on regional connectivity to emerging markets.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Government welcomes the investment that Birmingham Airport has made in extending its runway. The longer runway, which began operations on 22 July 2014, will allow direct long-haul flights to emerging economies, such as Brazil and China. This summer China Southern Airlines operated seasonal flights to Beijing, and I hope these and routes to other new destinations will become a permanent feature.

Aviation: Competition

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of changes in the level of competition between airports on the UK aviation sector in the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Department for Transport has not performed its own assessment of the effects of changes in the level of competition between airports on the UK aviation sector. Under the Civil Aviation Act 2012 the independent Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has a duty to act in passengers’ interests and promote competition where appropriate. To this end the CAA will economically regulate UK airports with significant market power, where the benefits of regulation outweigh the costs. As part of this the CAA assesses the level of competition between airports, where required.

Airports

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for the future of the UK's long-haul regional airports of any further expansion of (a) Heathrow and (b) Gatwick airports.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Programme for Government rules out current airport expansion in the South East for the life of this Parliament. To ensure our long term connectivity needs can be met, this Government established the independent Airports Commission to identify and recommend to Government options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation. Although options for expansion have been shortlisted by the Commission for further examination, its final recommendations are not due to be published until the summer of 2015. The Airports Commission has discussed and is consulting on how airports outside the South East might be affected by expansion at the shortlisted expansion options. The relevant documents are published by the Airports Commission on its website. It will be for the Government of the day to fully consider the recommendation of the Airports Commission’s final report.

East Coast

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much Inter City Railways Ltd will pay to acquire Directly Operated Railway's share in East Coast Main Line Company Ltd.

Claire Perry: The sale of East Coast Mainline Limited (ECML) to Inter City Railways Ltd (ICRL) is part of the wider franchise deal that was announced 27 November. The sale is contingent on the new franchise agreement commencing 1 March 2015 at which point ICRL will pay £11 million to Directly Operated Railways (DOR) for the share in ECML. Inter City Railways Ltd will also be required to repay any money outstanding under a working capital facility that DOR has with its subsidiary company 1 March 2015.

East Coast Railway Line

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made in (a) nominal and (b) current prices of Inter City Railways Ltd's annual premium payments from 2015-16 to 2023-24.

Claire Perry: The total premium payable to government by Inter City Railways Limited over the 8 year term of the new InterCity East Coast franchise is (a) £3.3bn in nominal terms; and (b) £2.35bn in Net Present Value (Premium payments in real terms discounted at 3.5%).

East Coast Railway Line

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to publish the InterCity East Coast Franchise Agreement.

Claire Perry: The franchise agreement and related documents will be made publicly available on the Department for Transport’s section on the GOV.UK website shortly after the start of the new franchise in March 2015. This will follow the completion of a process of redaction in accordance with the principles of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Roads: Capital Investment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Written Statement of 1 December 2014 on transport infrastructure, whether the £15 billion spending commitment for strategic roads enhancement will fund all 84 new road schemes announced in that statement.

Mr John Hayes: The Road Investment Strategy (RIS) committed a total of £15.2 billion in enhancement and long term maintenance of the network between 2015/16 and 2020/21 including 127 major enhancements, of which 84 were newly announced. The £15.2 billion is sufficient funding to take forward all schemes announced in the statement between 2015/16 and 2020/21. However, 11 of the 69 schemes set to enter construction during the first Road Period have been committed to by government subject to other contributions. In these instances, government is committed to providing part of the anticipated funding for this scheme, based on the expectation that the balance of funding will be available from other parties, including local authorities and/or affected property developers. Where agreement is reached in a suitable period of time construction will begin during the first Road Period.

East Coast Railway Line

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new franchise agreement for the East Coast Main Line on (a) Hull trains and (b) other open access operators in addition to their current track-access arrangements.

Claire Perry: The Invitation to Tender for the new InterCity East Coast franchise required bidders to demonstrate how their services would fit in alongside the current levels of Open Access operations. The new franchise with Inter City Railways Ltd does not include any new services to Hull and services to Sunderland operate at times that are complimentary to the current Grand Central services. As such there is not expected to be any impact on the current levels of Open Access operations from this franchise.

Procurement

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the explanatory note to the Draft Contracting Out (Vehicle Certification and Related Functions) Order 2014, for what reasons his Department does not foresee an impact on the private or voluntary sectors.

Claire Perry: The Order, if approved by Parliament, would give the Secretary of State power to delegate some of his existing statutory functions to a non-public sector body. The functions themselves are not being amended, so the standards that any non-public sector body would need to meet remain the same as those to which the Secretary of State, acting through the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), currently adheres. The Order does not change existing legislative requirements imposed on the automotive industry. The VCA has no routine dealings with the voluntary sector.

Driving: Diabetes

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency on its medical standards for people with type-2 diabetes; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry: The Secretary of State appointed the Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Diabetes Mellitus to provide expert advice on the medical standards required for safe driving in relation to diabetes. The Panel meets twice a year and provides advice to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The Panel last met in October 2014.

Driving: Diabetes

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that drivers with type-2 diabetes do not lose their licence as a result of hypoglycaemia.

Claire Perry: The Department for Transport is responsible for maintaining road safety for all road users. Those who are not medically fit to drive should not be issued with a driving licence. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides information to drivers with diabetes, including the symptoms of hypoglycaemia. The DVLA has also worked with organisations representing people with diabetes to provide clear information about the standards required for driving.

East Coast

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to complete the sale of East Coast Main Line Company Ltd to Inter City Railways Ltd.

Claire Perry: The sale of East Coast Main Line Company Ltd to Intercity Railways Ltd is expected to complete on the commencement of Franchise services, 1st March 2015.

East Coast Railway Line

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, to and from which destinations there will be a reduction in the number of daily services as a result of the new franchise agreement for the East Coast Main Line.

Claire Perry: The Department has contracted a minimum level of service to all destinations which is broadly at today’s level, with the franchisee having flexibility to operate services in addition to this. There are also several notable enhancements to the current level of service at destinations such as Bradford Forster Square, Harrogate, Shipley, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Stations such as Thornaby, Middlesbrough, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Sunderland will receive InterCity East Coast services for the first time. In some instances the number of daily services contracted at intermediate stations is a marginal reduction from the current level. These are typically a reduction of 1 daily call only, in one direction (to / from London) and will be often only temporary prior to the introduction of new rolling stock. Stations that will receive a minor reduction include: Morpeth, Alnmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar and Darlington.

Railways: Yorkshire and the Humber

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new franchise agreement for the East Coast Main Line on plans to electrify the railway from Selby to Hull.

Claire Perry: The new InterCity East Coast franchise will have no effect on plans to electrify the railway from Selby to Hull. The new Intercity Express train fleet that will be deployed on the franchise is flexible and includes bi-mode trains that are capable of operating on both Overhead Line electrified routes or on diesel traction where electrification is not available.

Railways: Yorkshire and the Humber

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new franchise agreement for the East Coast Main Line on services to (a) Howden, (b) Brough and (c) other stations on the Selby to Hull line.

Claire Perry: The new InterCity East Coast franchise will maintain the current level of service on the Selby to Hull line.

Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to build new, and upgrade existing, trunk roads.

Mr John Hayes: Government has published the first ever Road Investment Strategy, setting out how £15 billion will be invested in over 100 schemes on England’s motorway and trunk road network between 2015 and 2021. The south west of England will benefit from 7 new schemes worth around £2 billion, and in Gloucestershire we have committed to developing a proposal to improve the A417 ‘missing link’ to dual carriageway standard, taking account of both the environmental sensitivity of the site and the importance of the route to the local economy.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

David Mowat: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the benefit-cost ratio for the High Speed 2 Wigan spur.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Department has not estimated the case for the western leg of the Y-shaped route for High Speed 2 without the Wigan Spur. However, preliminary analysis undertaken by HS2 Ltd suggested that this section of the line is likely to provide benefits of the order of £1.2 billion, revenue of about £600 million, and is likely to offer very high value for money.

Wrexham-Bidston Railway Line

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the results of proposals to upgrade the Borderlands rail line.

Mr Patrick McLoughlin: The proposals to upgrade the Borderlands rail line are a local matter and being led by Merseytravel and the Welsh Government. My Department has not been involved at this stage in the proposals. Ministers from the Wales Office will be meeting stakeholders in North Wales soon to discuss the case for investment.

East Coast Railway Line

Sir Alan Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has for the future of local rail services on the East Coast mainline in Northumberland.

Mr Patrick McLoughlin: Stagecoach and Virgin will make a number of improvements on the InterCity East Coast franchise as a whole and have committed to providing broadly the same level of service for Northumberland as today. Notably, connecting services with stations in Northumberland for the “Flying Scotsman” will be retained.

Roads: Safety

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve road safety.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Britain is a world leader in road safety, but we are always striving to improve. For example, from March next year it will be an offence to drive with certain drugs in your body in excess of official limits. And measures in the deregulation bill will remove the driver’s right to demand a blood or urine test if they fail a breathalyser test.

Cycling: Safety

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage safer cycling.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Government takes all road safety – including cycle safety – very seriously. We have more than doubled funding for cycling and only last week announced a further £214 million. This will allow us to continue cycle proofing our roads and supporting Bikeability cycle training for children.

Bus Services

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve the provision of local bus services.

Mr John Hayes: The 2013 Spending Review protected bus spending until the end of 2015/16, despite tough economic times. This year we have earmarked £270m through Bus Service Operators Grant. This is in addition to £70m of funding provided through the Better Bus Area fund, and further bus funding as part of the £600m Local Sustainable Transport Fund. A total of £59m has also been provided through the Green Bus Fund, with a further £30m earmarked for 2015/16 onwards to improve environmental performance through the Office of Low Emission Vehicles.

Home Office

Proceeds of Crime

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2014 to Question 215386, how many of the suspicious activity reports were followed up in each year; and how many (a) investigations, (b) enforcement actions, (c) referrals to other agencies and (d) prosecutions there were as a result in each year.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 02 December 2014



Suspicious activity reports (SARs) are submitted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 or the Terrorism Act 2000 as a result of suspicion formed by the reporting sector. The SARs are then disseminated by the Financial Intelligence Unit to end users who have direct access via a secure computer portal appropriate for the confidentiality of the data. This direct access then allows end users to use SARs for a variety of investigative and intelligence purposes. No central record is held relating to the ultimate use of SARs data by these end users and therefore no data is available relating to how many investigations or enforcement actions may have resulted from SARs. A report providing an assessment of the operation of the SARs regime is published annually on the NCA website, the link is below: http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/suspicious-activity-reports-sars/94-sars-annual-report-2013

Police: Retirement

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police (a) constables, (b) sergeants, (c) inspectors, (d) chief inspectors, (e) superintendents, (f) chief superintendents and (g) ACPO-rank officers were compulsorily retired in each police force under Regulation A19 (Police Pension Regulations) in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2013-14.

Mike Penning: Data on this specific issue is not held centrally. Police forces are permitted to retire officers under regulation A19 at their own discretion and are not obliged to provide any information to the Home Office on this.

Police: Per Capita Costs

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average annual capitation rate is for a police (a) constable, (b) sergeant, (c) inspector, (d) chief inspector, (e) superintendent and (f) chief superintendent.

Mike Penning: We do not use or compile "capitation rates" for the police but do produce estimates of "on costs" for the police which are used in published impact assessments and other analysis. The "on costs" estimate the full hourly cost of using a police officer, this includes not just the wage per hour actually worked but includes expenses, tax payable, pensions, premises, transport, training and other costs. We provide estimates for police community support officers (PCSO), sergeants and below and senior police officers (inspectors and above). The "on cost" of a PCSO per hour is £28.90, a sergeant and below is £36.51 and a senior police officer is £58.79.The figures use publically available data from a variety of sources including the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Metropolitan Police Service. The first step works out the number of annual hours available for work by subtracting absence, training and leave from contracted weekly hours. The second step totals the wage and non-wage costs per head for the three categories of police officer. The total costs are then divided by the number of hours available for work.

Police: Finance

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the policing budget was classified as Official Development Assistance in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2013-14.

Mike Penning: On occasion, police forces provide international police assistance to foreign Governments or organisations. International police assistance would normally be funded by the requesting organisation or the FCO. How much of the policing budget is allocated to a specific workstream or activity within a police force area is a matter for individual Police and Crime Commissioners (before 2012 Police Authorities) in consultation with their Chief Constable.

Police: Interpreters

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department issues to police forces on their obligation to provide interpreter services.

Mike Penning: The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code of Practice C (on the Detention, Treatment and Questioning of Persons by Police Officers) sets out the obligations of chief officers in respect of interpretation and translation services. Please refer to Section 13 of PACE in particular.

Entry Clearances: Kuwait

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the costs of extending the electronic visa waiver scheme to Kuwait.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Immigration

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the professions of non-EU migrants who have entered the UK in the last five years.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Take-away Food

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has spent on take-away food for staff since May 2010.

Mr David Lidington: It is not possible to answer this question without incurring disproportionate cost.

British Overseas Territories

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has had discussions with the governments of the British Overseas Territories on the establishment of beneficial ownership registers for those companies incorporated under their jurisdiction; and if he will make a statement.

James Duddridge: The Prime Minister has made it clear that he would like a publicly accessible central register of company beneficial ownership to be the new international standard.We have a regular dialogue at both Ministerial and official level with the Overseas Territories with a financial services industry on the establishment of company beneficial ownership registers. We are keeping them informed as the UK policy develops. I visited the British Virgin Islands in October and discussed with politicians and industry the importance of taking action on company transparency.Territory Leaders are currently in London for the Joint Ministerial Council. I have discussed Financial Services, including company beneficial ownership, with leaders of all Overseas Territories this week.Bermuda has had a central register of company beneficial ownership since the 1940s.

India

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the purpose was of the UK Indian Diaspora Champion's recent visit to Leicester.

Mr Hugo Swire: The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel), visited Leicester to attend Diwali celebrations at Leicester's BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and Shree Hindu Temple and Community Centre, and to meet with members of the diaspora community in her capacity as UK Diaspora Champion.

Turkey

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the Turkish authorities on preventing the smuggling of oil produced in territories controlled by ISIL.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We maintain a close and regular dialogue with Turkey about matters connected with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including preventing the smuggling of oil. I visited Turkey 29-30 November and discussed issues related to ISIL with President Erdoğan.On 10 November the UK convened a meeting of the Core Group of the Friends of Syria which includes Turkey. We reaffirmed our commitment to a genuine political transition in co-operation with the UN Special Envoy; supporting the National Coalition to deliver services and protect the Syrian people; and strengthening measures against the Syrian regime including restricting its access to oil and military hardware.In New York on 23 September, President Erdoğan reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to fulfilling its obligations in the fight against terror. Together we have endorsed recent action at the UN to tighten the net around ISIL’s finance and recruitment operations (UNSCRs 2170 and 2178).

United Nations

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many police officers are currently seconded to UN peacekeeping missions.

James Duddridge: The UK has eight police officers working for UN Police Division, most in UN Peacekeeping missions. Four UK officers are seconded to the UN Mission in South Sudan, where they are working on community policing and protection of civilians; a fifth UK officer is contracted to the mission in South Sudan. The other three officers are working in UN contracted positions in UN Police Division, New York; the UN’s Standing Police Capacity in Brindisi; and the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (a UN political mission, where a UK officer holds the Senior Police Adviser position).

Saudi Arabia

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government has made to the Saudi Arabian government regarding the case of Raif Badawi.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We are aware of the case of Raif Badawi and have been monitoring proceedings closely. Our Embassy in Riyadh worked with the EU to raise concerns about Mr Badawi’s case with the Saudi authorities, in particular his sentencing. We will continue to follow his case.

Burma

Mr David Ward: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Burmese government on the implications for that country's international legal obligations of the internment of Rohingya people who do not meet that country's citizenship criteria.

Mr Hugo Swire: We have raised our concern at the issues surrounding the Rohingya community in all of our recent Ministerial contacts with the Burmese government. Most recently, I discussed this with the Minister for Immigration and the Rakhine Chief Minister during their visit to the UK in October. We have been clear in our communications with the Burmese government that we expect them to adhere to their international human rights obligations regarding the treatment and welfare of those that do not meet the country’s citizenship criteria. While we welcome the limited citizenship verification in Taungpaw for internally displaced people that has seen some individuals from the Rohingya community granted citizenship status, we continue to urge the Burmese authorities to follow a transparent, inclusive and consistent process in establishing the status of inhabitants of Rakhine State. We are also clear that, regardless of citizenship status, the human rights of all individuals in Rakhine must be fully respected.

Marine Protected Areas

Sir Oliver Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote marine protected areas internationally.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: As announced in the Natural Environment White Paper, the Government is committed to the negotiation of a new implementing agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. These should, in particular, address the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the fact that there is currently no universally accepted legal framework for the international recognition of MPAs in the high seas. My Department, working in close cooperation with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, has played an active role in discussions on this issue at the United Nations Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, and we are pressing for a decision by September 2015 to commence formal negotiations on a new agreement in accordance with outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Leading by example in the areas within our own jurisdiction, the UK has a number of MPAs around the UK, and additionally there are three MPAs around the UK’s overseas territories.

Nuclear Weapons

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his Answer of 25 November 2014 to the hon. Member for Moray, Official Report, column 776, whether the UK will attend the international conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons in Vienna; and what the reasons are for the decision on attendance.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) announced in the House on 2 December that the UK has accepted the Austrian Government’s invitation to attend the Vienna Conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. It is clear that a large number of states wish to discuss this issue. We are willing to attend the Vienna conference to do so.

Northern Ireland Office

Maghaberry Prison

Mr Jeffrey M. Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with the Minister of Justice in Northern Ireland about the threat assessments carried out after recent threats made against non-prison service staff working in HMP Maghaberry.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: Almost all prison matters are the responsibility of the Department of Justice. I meet regularly with the Minister of Justice David Ford to discuss various issues relating to policing and security in Northern Ireland, including the security of people working in prisons and in policing.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Overseas Trade

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with which 10 countries UK trade has increased the most in (a) percentage and (b) absolute terms in the last 12 months.

Matthew Hancock: The following tables show the largest increases in bilateral trade (exports + imports) in absolute value and percentage terms for goods. It is often the case that the largest percentage increases are with the smallest trading partners because of the small value of trade with these countries. In order to not distort the percentage increase data in this way the tables only consider the UK's 50 largest trade in goods partners for 2013 and display the top 10 from those selected countries. Change in value of bilateral trade is measured between the 12 months ending September 2013 and the 12 months ending September 2014. Trade in goods data has been used in this answer as it contains information on all trade partners whereas total trade data (goods and services) as published by ONS are not available for all trading partners. A full list of trade values covering over 200 countries can be found on the HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics website (goods only): https://www.uktradeinfo.com/   Table 1 Bilateral trade in goods: (50 largest trading partners only)Trading partners with largest percentage increase between 12 monthsending September 2013 and 12 months ending September 2014 Increase in value (£ million)% increaseEgypt40125%South Korea1,64223%China6,31015%Portugal3009%Italy1,9558%Austria2917%Spain1,2106%Slovakia1005%Finland1564%Germany3,3984%Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics  Table 2 Bilateral trade in goods: (50 largest trading partners only)Trading partners with largest value of increase between 12 monthsending September 2013 and 12 months ending September 2014 Increase in value (£ million)% increaseChina6,31015%Germany3,3984%Italy1,9558%South Korea1,64223%Spain1,2106%Irish Republic4442%Egypt40125%Portugal3009%Austria2917%Czech Republic2023%Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics

Hinkley Point C Power Station

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential risk that the development of Hinkley Point C power station may cause a shortage of nuclear engineering skills at Devonport dockyard.

Matthew Hancock: A detailed assessment has been carried out of future skills needs for the civil nuclear new build programme, including the Hinkley Point C development. That assessment, carried out by skills bodies on behalf of the Nuclear Industry Council, included input from Ministry of Defence (MoD), who are members of that Council. The relevant departments – Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Energy & Climate Change (DECC), Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Work & Pensions (DWP) – are working with industry to ensure that a coordinated approach is taken to meeting future skills demand, including for engineers in both the civil and defence sectors.

Arms Trade: Exports

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what criteria must be met for an arms export licence to be revoked.

Matthew Hancock: Article 32(1) of the Export Control Order 2008 (as amended) empowers my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to vary or revoke export licences at any time. The 2008 Order does not specify the grounds on which a licence may be revoked. In practice the reasons include: (i) As a result of the imposition of EU or UN sanctions;   (ii) Where there has been a change in Government policy in respect of the export of certain goods, or the export of specified goods to a certain destination, and the proposed export is no longer consistent with the revised policy;   (iii) Where there has been a change in circumstances in the destination country or region such that the proposed export is no longer consistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria or with other relevant, announced, policies;   (iv) Where new information has come to light about a particular export which indicates that the proposed export is no longer consistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria or with other relevant, announced, policies;   (v) Where an exporter has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the licence, or as a result of enforcement action by HMRC/UK Border Agency; and   (vi) For administrative reasons, such as a company ceasing to trade and therefore no longer being able to use the licence, or where the exporter requests an amendment to a licence and revoking and re-issuing it is simpler than making an amendment.

Renewable Energy

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Department's buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Swinson: The Department currently has a number of renewable energy installations installed for micro-generation. BIS Core produced 10,615kwh of electricity between June-September (Quarter 2) this year. This is produced from PV arrays set on the roof of 1 Victoria Street. The Biomass boiler at Companies House in Cardiff produces 88% of heating for the building producing 227 tonnes of carbon per annum and is an Ofgem case study and Carbon Trust Exemplar. Since April 2014 the Department as a whole has produced: 122,967kwh of electricity3,500kwh of heat32,022kwh of CHP electricity62,880kwh of CHP heat   Assessments to install micro-generation across sites are being made however are faced with a number of challenges including site constraints, funding and payback before lease expiry.

Department for International Development

Voluntary Service Overseas

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department is providing to the business volunteering hub over the next three years.

Justine Greening: DFID is supporting VSO to establish a self-sustaining Corporate Volunteering Hub (CVH). The CVH will act as market-making organisation and will match the growing demand in development programmes for business skills with the growing supply of experienced business professionals willing and able to volunteer. VSO’s experience in international development and volunteering will ensure the Hub will be responsive to both programming needs of development partners and sustainability interests of corporate members. DFID will provide up to £3.4m over 5 years.

Security

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many security breaches have been recorded by her Department in each year since 2010; and what action has been taken following each such breach.

Justine Greening: DFID takes all breaches seriously but most breaches within DFID are of a minor nature such as loss of a pass. The earliest data we hold is from 2008. Across all DFID’s staff, since 2010 my Department has recorded the following minor security breaches.   YearMinor breaches20103312011151201213820132942014327   There have been 9 major breaches and 0 gross breaches, the highest category.

Procurement

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many contracts her Department has awarded to (a) small and medium-sized enterprises and (b) mid-sized businesses in each year since 2010.

Justine Greening: Since 2011, DFID has recorded the amount of small and medium-sized enterprises in centrally managed contracts. We do not categorise suppliers by ‘mid-sized business’.The department awarded the following amount of centrally managed contracts with SME’s during the periods 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 (up until end of September).   YearNumber of centrally managed contracts awarded by DFID categorised as SME20114920124720131042014 to end September54

Procurement

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many contracts her Department has entered into with non-UK firms in each year since 2010; and if she will provide details.

Justine Greening: Since 2011, DFID has recorded the registered office of each supplier that has been awarded a contract. The department had the following amount of centrally managed contracts with non-UK firms during the periods 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 (up until end of September).   YearNumber of centrally managed contracts, awarded by DFID, supplied by Non-UK firms2011142012222013292014 to end September13

Staff

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many (a) locally engaged and (b) UK-based staff her Department has employed in each country with a DfID office in each year since 2010.

Mr Desmond Swayne: The Department for International Development has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Overseas Aid

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many international payments of less than £2 million her Department has made and to which countries in each financial year from 2010-11; what the total value of such payments to each such country was; and what the total cost in fees and transactions of each such payment was.

Justine Greening: The table below details the number of International payments together with the total values for each period.  Payments under £2m VOLUME OF PAYMENTS 2010-20112352 2011-20122256 2012-20132741 2013-20143718We are unable to allocate payments to individual countries or apportion the total costs of fees for these payments without incurring a disproportionate cost.

Department for Education

Schools: Admissions

Bob Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ease the pressure of rising birth rates on schools.

Mr David Laws: Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area. Supporting local authorities to create school places where they are needed most is one of the Department for Education’s main priorities. That is why we have committed £5 billion in capital funding between 2011 and 2015 to help local authorities to create new school places. In addition we have announced an additional £2.35 billion in capital funding to help create new school places that will be needed by September 2017. This support has already enabled local authorities to create 260,000 additional pupil places between May 2010 and May 2013, including 212,000 primary places, with more in the pipeline for September 2015. We have also stripped out bureaucracy to make it easier for schools to expand to offer more places, if they so wish.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of home-educated children in England and Wales.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education does not collect information regarding the number of home-schooled children in England.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the educational attainment of children who are home-educated in England and Wales.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education does not collect information regarding the attainment of home-schooled children in England. Education in Wales is a devolved matter.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 214684, which representative bodies she or representatives of her Department have met in autumn 2014 to discuss home schooling and safeguarding.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education officials have met with the policy committee of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services; officers of Darlington Borough Council; the children’s services scrutiny committee of the City of Westminster, and two regional forums of local authority elective home education officers; one for London and the South East and the other for the West Midlands.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department's Independent Education and School Governance Division has made of the number of homeschooled children in England and Wales (a) in total and (b) who are believed to be at risk in relation to safeguarding.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has made no such assessment. The identification of children not receiving a suitable education, and those within that number at risk for safeguarding reasons, is a matter for each local authority. Home education in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Government.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many homeschooling safeguarding concerns were raised by local authorities with her Department's Independent Education and School Governance Division in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities raised safeguarding matters relating to homeschooled children with her Department in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities raised education matters relating to homeschooled children with her Department in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education does not keep records in the form requested.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many parents were (a) investigated and (b) prosecuted for failing to ensure that their children were receiving insufficient hours of education whilst being homeschooled in each of the last five years.

Mr Nick Gibb: If a child of compulsory school age is being educated at home but is not receiving a full-time education as required by section 7 of the Education Act 1996, the appropriate remedy is not prosecution but the serving of a school attendance order. If the parent does not comply with such an order, prosecution may then follow.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many parents were (a) investigated and (b) prosecuted for failing to ensure that their children attended school on a sufficiently regular basis in each of the last five years.

Mr Nick Gibb: The Department for Education does not collect data regarding local investigations of parents who fail to ensure their school registered children attend school regularly. The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales and it is published online at:www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly-december-2013 The Ministry of Justice has provided the information you requested in the attached spreadsheet. 



Defendants for truancy offences 2009-13
(Excel SpreadSheet, 45.5 KB)

Education: Children

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department produces an annual (a) estimate of the number of children missing from education in England and Wales and (b) assessment of the reasons for those children being missing.

Mr Nick Gibb: I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave him on 24 November (214706) in relation to an estimate of the number of children missing from education in England and Wales. The Department for Education does not produce an assessment of the reasons for those children missing education. Education in Wales is a devolved matter.The Welsh Government is responsible for polices and legislation regarding children missing from education in Wales.

Home Education

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will bring forward proposals to require all parents who are engaged in homeschooling to register their child with the local authority for safeguarding purposes irrespective of whether the child has ever attended full-time in-school education.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will bring forward proposals to require local authorities to register children who are homeschooled.

Mr Nick Gibb: At present, as I indicated in the Answer I gave to the hon. Member on 20 October (210289), we are discussing with local authorities the concerns they have about information available on children who are educated at home. We have not yet reached any conclusion as to whether any changes are needed to the Department’s guidance document or the current framework within which home education operates.

Education: Children

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will bring forward proposals to require all parents to ensure that their children are in full-time education irrespective of whether this is delivered in the home or in a school.

Mr Nick Gibb: Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 already places a duty on the parent of every child of compulsory school age to ensure the child receives a full-time education suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and any special education needs the child may have either by regular attendance at school or by education otherwise, for example, home education. In addition the law places a duty on local authorities to make arrangements to identify, as far as it is possible, children of compulsory school age in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at school. It is the duty of the local authority to ensure those children are identified and receive a suitable full-time education.

Schools: VAT

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons her Department has decided to refund VAT costs for schools and academies.

Mr David Laws: Local authority maintained schools are able to recover VAT costs because they are part of local government and their expenditure is regarded as the expenditure of the local authority. Local authorities as a whole are able to recover VAT costs because they are subsidiary tax-raising authorities within the United Kingdom. When schools move outside local authority control to become academies they are no longer covered by this regime. Since 2011, legislation has been in force that ensures that in this respect academies are treated in the same way as maintained schools. Academies can recover directly from HMRC the VAT which they incur on goods and services.

Social Work

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to finalise its draft Knowledge and Skills Statement for child and family social work.

Mr Edward Timpson: We published the statement of the knowledge and skills for child and family social work on 28 November 2014. The statement, along with the Government’s response to the consultation, can be accessed via the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/knowledge-and-skills-for-child-and-family-social-work

Teachers

Mr Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time teachers were working in publicly-funded schools at the beginning of the year and not working in schools the following year in the last 12 months for which data is available.

Mr David Laws: There were 26,850 full-time teachers and 16,190 part-time teachers in service in publicly-funded schools in England in March 2010 who were not similarly employed in March 2011. These figures include teachers who retired between March 2010 and March 2011.These figures are the latest available. The information is provisional and sourced from the Database of Teacher Records. The information is published in table C1 from the additional tables in the Statistical First Release ‘School Workforce in England, November 2012’ and is available at the following web link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2012

Teachers: Pay

Mr Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the number of schools implementing blanket policies against the pay portability of teachers returning after a career break.

Mr David Laws: Our pay reforms have given schools greater flexibility to develop pay policies that are tailored to their needs. That includes the freedom to pay what they consider to be the appropriate rate for the skills that someone brings and the challenges of the job rather than having to pay a teacher what they had previously been paid at another school. We do not monitor how schools are using their new flexibilities but would expect schools to be actively considering their approach to pay portability within the pay freedoms now available to them.

Supply Teachers

Simon Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the pay and employment conditions of supply teachers employed by supply teacher agencies; and if she will make a statement.

Mr David Laws: The Department does not collect data on pay and employment conditions for supply teachers employed by agencies as these fall within private commercial arrangements.

Supply Teachers

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that qualified teachers employed by private agencies to provide supply cover in schools have access to the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

Mr David Laws: Supply teachers have access to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) where they have a contract of employment directly with the school or local authority in which they are working. Decisions about the precise employer/employee relationship are determined locally between the school and the agency.

Ministry of Justice

Open Prisons

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many indeterminate sentenced prisoners were held in open prisons in the years ending 31 March (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Andrew Selous: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 04 September 2014.The correct answer should have been:

The number of indeterminate sentenced prisoners held in open prisons in England and Wales, for financial years 2012 - 2014, can be found in table 1. A life sentence is mandatory on conviction for murder. Under a life sentence, and an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), the court determines the minimum period to be served in prison for the purposes of punishment and deterrence. Prisoners serving these indeterminate sentences have no automatic right to be released. If released they are subject to recall for the rest of their life or, in the case of an offender serving an IPP, for at least 10 years. Public protection is the priority and the release of indeterminate sentence prisoners once they have served their minimum term is entirely a matter for the Parole Board.Progression to open conditions is never automatic and only follows a satisfactory assessment of risk, generally involving the independent Parole Board in the case of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences.The Parole Board may recommend such prisoners for open conditions if, for example: they have successfully completed any offending behaviour programmes identified in their sentence plan as essential to the risk reduction process; their behaviour in custody is such that it is considered that a move is appropriate; and their risks are manageable in open conditions.Once allocated to open prison, prisoners continue to be monitored and are returned to closed prison immediately if there are any concerns about their suitability for low security conditions. Open prisons have been used since 1936, because they are the most effective means of ensuring that prisoners are suitably risk-assessed before they are released into the community under appropriate licence conditions. When a prisoner moves to the less rigid structure of open conditions an assessment can be made in a relatively safe environment of how the prisoner will adapt to increasing responsibility. For many prisoners, in particular those such as life sentence prisoners, who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these are essential components for successful reintegration in the community and therefore an important factor in protecting the public.



Indeterminate Sentenced Prisoners in open prisons
(PDF Document, 6.76 KB)

Andrew Selous: The number of indeterminate sentenced prisoners held in open prisons in England and Wales, for financial years 2012 - 2014, can be found in table 1. A life sentence is mandatory on conviction for murder. Under a life sentence, and an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), the court determines the minimum period to be served in prison for the purposes of punishment and deterrence. Prisoners serving these indeterminate sentences have no automatic right to be released. If released they are subject to recall for the rest of their life or, in the case of an offender serving an IPP, for at least 10 years. Public protection is the priority and the release of indeterminate sentence prisoners once they have served their minimum term is entirely a matter for the Parole Board.Progression to open conditions is never automatic and only follows a satisfactory assessment of risk, generally involving the independent Parole Board in the case of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences.The Parole Board may recommend such prisoners for open conditions if, for example: they have successfully completed any offending behaviour programmes identified in their sentence plan as essential to the risk reduction process; their behaviour in custody is such that it is considered that a move is appropriate; and their risks are manageable in open conditions.Once allocated to open prison, prisoners continue to be monitored and are returned to closed prison immediately if there are any concerns about their suitability for low security conditions. Open prisons have been used since 1936, because they are the most effective means of ensuring that prisoners are suitably risk-assessed before they are released into the community under appropriate licence conditions. When a prisoner moves to the less rigid structure of open conditions an assessment can be made in a relatively safe environment of how the prisoner will adapt to increasing responsibility. For many prisoners, in particular those such as life sentence prisoners, who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these are essential components for successful reintegration in the community and therefore an important factor in protecting the public.



Indeterminate Sentenced Prisoners in open prisons
(PDF Document, 6.76 KB)

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the companies offering guarantees to support Community Rehabilitation companies are (a) in the third sector and (b) private companies.

Andrew Selous: Information regarding Parent Company Guarantees, including the identity of guarantors, is commercially sensitive information relating to bidder proposals and cannot be disclosed while the competition is ongoing. However I can confirm that we have a healthy diverse market in the competition to establish the eventual owners of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies. There has been strong competition in all regions, with over 80 bids received and an average of four bidders for each area. Following rigorous assessment eight Preferred Bidders have been selected. In 19 of the 21 areas a mutual or VCSE is involved in the Tier 1 bid or as a strategic partner, and six of the Community Rehabilitation Companies will be run with the involvement of a probation staff mutual. The list of Preferred Bidders can be accessed via the following link: http://www.justice.gov.uk/transforming-rehabilitation/competition

Prisons: Wales

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual revenue cost of the proposed prison in North Wales.

Andrew Selous: The decision as to who will operate the prison in North Wales has yet to be made. Any estimate of the likely annual revenue cost of the prison would be commercially sensitive and unsuitable for disclosure at this point.

Kidnapping: Children

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how he plans to respond to the Law Commission's recommendation on unlawful retention of children in its report on Simplification of Criminal Law: Kidnapping and Related Offences; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning: Kidnap and child abduction can have a devastating and lasting impact on victims and their families. It is vital that the law reflects the gravity of such offences and that those who commit them are punished accordingly. The Law Commission published its report on these offences on 20 November. The Government is considering the recommendations and will respond in due course.

Youth Offending Teams

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 215236, by what date he plans to finalise the details of the Youth Offending Team stocktake.

Andrew Selous: Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) play a key part in the youth justice system and the Government recognises their valuable contribution to the recent successes of the system. The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the Youth Justice Board to finalise the details of a stocktake to establish how the YOT model is operating and how YOTs have evolved in light of the changing circumstances surrounding the delivery of local youth justice services. We anticipate that the details of the stocktake will be finalised in the New Year.

Police: Guernsey

Mr Elfyn Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what reports representatives of his Department have received of complaints by the residents of Sark relating to the Sark newsletter which have been lodged with the Guernsey Police; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara: My Department is aware that complaints have been made to the Guernsey Police. This is an operational matter for them, and it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Youth Custody

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 215244, what proportion each individual ethnic group cited in that Answer represented of the total number of offenders in youth custody in each year since May 2010.

Andrew Selous: The proportion of young people in the youth secure estate from each ethnic group was set out in PQ 215983 which can be found at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=215983

Prisoners' Release

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the evidence used in his assessment of the equality impact of his legislative proposals to create a system of recall adjudicators to review the detention of recalled determinate sentenced offenders.

Andrew Selous: The Ministry of Justice has considered the equality impact of the recall adjudicator provisions, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. There is no requirement to publish the evidence that was considered. I should like to reassure the honourable Member that implementation of the new system of recall adjudicators will be subject to ongoing equality considerations as details of new model are developed.

Prisoners' Release

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many recalled determinate sentenced offenders have protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010.

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many recalled determinate sentenced offenders are (a) under 18, (b) between 18 and 21, (c) over 60, (d) suffering from a physical disability, (e) suffering from mental illness, including learning disability, (f) pregnant, (g) BME, (h) male and (i) female.

Andrew Selous: All recalled determinate sentence offenders will have protected characteristics as defined within the Equality Act 2010. This is because protected characteristics include, for example, gender and sexual orientation, which are universally held characteristics. The table below provides the total number of determinate sentence offenders whose licences were revoked during the period 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 and who were given either a standard recall or a fixed term recall. The data are broken down by gender, ethnicity and age group. The Ministry of Justice does not hold data centrally on the number of offenders within this group who had either a physical disability, mental impairment, learning disability or who were pregnant at the point at which they were recalled. To provide this information would require a manual trawl of individual prisoner case files and this would incur disproportionate cost.   Table 1: Number of Determinate Sentenced Prisoners who were Licence Recalls in 2013-14, broken down by Gender GenderHeadcount Male16,36296%Female7204%Total17,082100%   Table 2: Number of Determinate Sentenced Prisoners who were Licence Recalls in 2013-14, broken down by Ethnicity EthnicityHeadcount Declared BME2,89717% of which   Declared Asian or Asian British6584% Declared Black or Black British1,4699% Declared Chinese and Other Ethnic Groups700% Declared Mixed Ethnic Groups7004%Declared White14,10983%Not Declared760%Total17,082Table 3: Number of Determinate Sentenced Prisoners who were Licence Recalls in 2013-14, broken down by Age Age GroupHeadcount 15-17250%18-2015019%21-24354121%25-29363121%30-39549332%40-49227713%50-594973%60+1171%Total17,082

Leader of the House

Backbench Business Committee

Mr William Bain: To ask the Leader of the House, what assessment he has made of the effect of the creation of the Backbench Business Committee on the work of the House.

Mr William Hague: I have not made a recent assessment of the effect of the creation of the Backbench Business Committee on the work of the House, but the Government response to the Procedure Committee review, published in February 2013, agreed that the Backbench Business Committee had been 'widely welcomed as a successful and effective innovation'.

Ministry of Defence

Libya

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the role of training Libyan soldiers in the UK as part of the UK strategy to help Libya improve its long-term security and defence capacity.

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are being taken to assess the effectiveness of the training programme in place for Libyan soldiers in the UK.

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons it was decided that the UK should train Libyan soldiers in the UK rather than Libya.

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons UK-based training for Libyan soldiers has been cancelled for all participants.

Mr Mark Francois: Holding answer received on 25 November 2014



The training of Libyan troops under the General Purpose Force initiative, supported by the UK, US, Italy, and Turkey and other international partners, is aimed at supporting a peaceful transition to an open, democratic, stable and secure Libya. It forms part of the wider international effort on long term security sector reform to bring the use of force under Libyan Government control and assist with disarming, disbanding and reintegrating armed groups in Libya.The Libyan Government requested that Libyan troops were trained outside Libya to allow the creation of a force that was geographically representative of Libya and away from the influence of armed groups in Libya in order to protect its neutrality. Training in Libya would have entailed considerable expense and required the deployment of significant numbers of UK troops into a security environment in which we could not guarantee their safety.The MOD considered a number of alternative training locations, including UK sovereign bases overseas and in partner countries. Training in the UK offered the most rapid, effective way of meeting the Libyan Government's requirement, and at the lowest cost.The Army has been providing a challenging training programme to the Libyan General Purpose Force since mid June and the majority of recruits have responded positively to the training despite the ongoing political uncertainty in Libya. They have reached a competent standard and are capable of fulfilling a number of roles on their return. However, as the Prime Minister has recognised, there have been disciplinary issues, some affecting the local community which are completely unacceptable and a matter of regret. For these reasons, the Government agreed with the Libyan Government to bring forward the training completion date.A team has been set up to produce for the Defence Secretary before Christmas an objective report into the GPF training. It is led by an MOD senior civil servant who was not involved in the delivery, supported by a senior civil servant loaned from another Government Department to provide an additional element of independence and challenge.The UK remains committed to supporting the Libyan authorities and people as they work to establish stability and security across the country. The immediate priority must be agreement to a political settlement and the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Libya, Jonathan Powell, is playing an active role in supporting UN-led mediation efforts to this end.

Libya

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department took to vet Libyan personnel prior to their commencing military training at Bassingbourn barracks; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Mark Francois: Holding answer received on 20 November 2014



Prior to the start of General Purpose Force training on 11 June 2014, the UK had numerous discussions with the Libyan government on the selection and vetting of Libyan trainees. These conversations included the United States and Italy. The Libyan government provided trainee candidates who had been through Libyan vetting and selection processes. These candidates were subject to additional UK vetting in Libya to ensure those selected met Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Home Office requirements on security, immigration, medical, physical, literacy, and numeracy criteria as well as meeting a distribution of trainees that was geographically representative of Libya. Home Office visa processes included checks against UK criminal databases and a visa declaration by all trainees that confirmed they held no criminal convictions or charges in the UK or elsewhere. We are not aware that any of those candidates who passed UK screening had criminal convictions or faced charges at that time in the UK or elsewhere.

Defence: Procurement

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the date of contract signature was for the (a) A400M, (b) ASTUTE Subsequent Procurement (boats 4-7), (c) Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers, (d) Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme and (e) MARS Tanker.

Mr Philip Dunne: Contract signature dates for the programmes listed are as follows:  ProgrammeContract SignatureType of Contract A400MMay 2003Development and Production contract Asture Subsequent Procurement (Boats 4-7)November 2012(Boat 4)Boats 5-7 Whole Boat contracts have not yet been signed QEC Aircraft CarriersJuly 2008Aircraft Carrier Manufacturing Phase Alliance Agreement. Amended and updated in May 2014Warrior Capability Sustainment ProgrammeDecember 2011Demonstration phase contract MARS TankerMarch 2012Manufacture phase contract

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent to date on the running costs of the interim IT solution put in place while Capita develop a new platform for the management of regular and reserve soldier recruitment.

Mr Julian Brazier: As the previous Defence Secretary, my right hon. Friend Mr Hammond stated on 14 January 2014 (Official Report, column 717) the additional costs of the interim IT solution is around £1 million per month. The current cost to date is around £9 million.



Hansard Extract IT systems (Army Recruitment)
(Word Document, 81 KB)

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance the armed forces have given his Department on the raising of the upper age limit of recruitment of those with specialist skills to become Officers in the Army Reserve from 45 to 50 years old.

Mr Julian Brazier: Guidance on the raising of the recruitment age to 50 years old for those with specialist skills to become Officers in the Army Reserve was given in an Army Briefing Note published in May 2012. This was further published as part of a Defence Instruction and Notice issued in August 2014.

Armed Forces: Redundancy Pay

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to gather figures on the total and average sum paid out in redundancy packages for each branch of the armed services (a) since 2010 and (b) in future years.

Anna Soubry: Expenditure on redundancy payments is not recorded separately by the single Services. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does record the total expenditure incurred by civilian and Armed Forces redundancy payments collectively. These are reported each year in the MOD's Annual Report and Accounts.We do not gather details of the average redundancy payment.

Armed Forces Covenant

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to increase uptake of armed forces community covenants.

Anna Soubry: Every local authority in Great Britain has signed a Community Covenant. Work is now being undertaken to embed and sustain Covenant activity throughout the country to ensure that Service personnel, their families, and veterans have access to the information and support they need in their local communities. In Northern Ireland, good early progress is already being made with implementation of the Covenant, and we will continue to engage with the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that the needs of the Armed Forces community are met.

Land

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made on the disposal of his Department's surplus land; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Julian Brazier: As part of the Government's housing target of 100,000 new homes, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has a target to release sufficient land to deliver 37,634 housing units by 31 March 2015. To date the MOD has achieved 35,818 units and transferred 515 units to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

Department for Work and Pensions

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: The Department for Work and Pensions, in partnership with its facilities provider Telereal Trillium, continues to reduce water consumption and costs as the tables below from DWP’s Annual Sustainable Development Report 2013 to 2014 illustrate. We work with our facilities provider to proactively identify and report water leaks by regularly monitoring water usage. Waterless urinals have already been installed throughout the DWP Estate and old large-capacity toilet water cisterns are replaced with dual-flush systems as routine property repairs and improvements are carried out. Water invoices are scrutinised for accuracy and challenged where necessary and we continue to work with our facilities provider to identify initiatives to continue to reduce consumption and costs year on year. Table 11a: GGC Water Target – a) Reduce water consumption from a 2009/10 baseline  2009-10(Baseline)2011-122012-132013-14WaterConsumption(m3) 810,701 716,155 639,688 626,818  Table 11b: Financial Indicators (£)  2009-10(Baseline)2011-122012-132013-14Water supply1,185,0331,024,0781,032,589980,776Sewerage2,578,0082,335,2372,373,3142,331,337Total Water Costs 3,763,041 3,359,315 3,405,903 3,312,113

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department gives to a Work Programme sub-contractor to which a prime provider has refused to make a contractual payment; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Security Benefits: ICT

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects support and security accreditation to be restored to the Enhanced Transition Service Enhancements.

Steve Webb: The Department keeps the security arrangements for its IT systems under regular review and ensures support and remediation whenever issues are identified. However, it would not be appropriate to comment on individual risk assessments and accreditation arrangements for particular systems, as this is ongoing activity of particular sensitivity.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food: Labelling

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to tackle misleading labelling of food.

George Eustice: Food labelling rules are set at EU level and require that food information is not misleading. This Government has pressed for better information for consumers during negotiations relating to food labelling in Europe.Food businesses are responsible for ensuring their products are safe and accurately labelled. The Government backs this up with risk-based checks carried out by Local Authorities. In addition, Defra develops validated testing methods under its Food Authenticity programme to check for mis-description and fraud. These methods are used by Public Analysts and Local Authorities to support food law enforcement.The majority of food law enforcement is delegated to Local Authorities throughout the UK who carry out checks of food businesses in their area to ensure compliance with food safety, traceability and labelling requirements. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) supports Local Authorities by providing funding for additional sampling and providing expert advice and training. A total of £2 million is being provided in 2014-15 to support additional food sampling. Measures to co-ordinate food standards enforcement across Local Authorities are kept under continual review by the FSA to improve effectiveness of delivery, working with Local Authorities and trading standards professional bodies.

Quagga Mussels

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Contingency Invasive Species Action Plan for the Quagga mussel will be published and considered for implementation.

George Eustice: A Contingency Invasive Species Action Plan was being developed prior to the arrival of the quagga mussel in Great Britain. However, once the mussel was detected, immediate contingency measures were considered and put in place. These included communicating its presence to water sport users and Thames Water to help prevent further spread of the species via the ‘Check, Clean, Dry ‘campaign. All involved have been working constructively together. The Environment Agency continues to monitor for further quagga mussel populations. The development of an Invasive Species Action Plan to manage this and other similar species will now be considered for development.

Dairy Farming

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce price volatility in the dairy industry; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice: I had a constructive discussion on the prospects for introducing futures markets for skimmed milk powder at the Dairy Supply Chain Forum on 19 November. Members are exploring how this could be achieved and the NFU will report on progress in the New Year.Through the joint Defra/industry Farming Resilience Group, which I chair, we are also considering the potential for the use of futures markets to manage volatility and risk. The next meeting will take place in January 2015.On its website, DairyCo provides domestic dairy farmers with a range of educational materials and guidance on futures markets and other forms of price risk management.

Milk: Prices

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her estimate is of the (a) Actual Milk Price Equivalent and (b) Intervention Milk Price Equivalent for the first quarter of 2015.

George Eustice: The Actual Milk Price Equivalent and Intervention of Milk Price Equivalent indicators capture historic market trends and cannot be used to estimate future prices.The EU Milk Market Observatory (MMO) provides a range of information on price trends and short-term analysis. Intervention prices for skimmed milk powder and butter are set out in EU Regulation 1370/2013.

Dairy Products: Marketing

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department spent on marketing support for (a) milk and (b) other dairy products in financial years (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12, (iii) 2012-13 and (iv) 2013-14; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice: The Government offers no direct financial support to marketing of milk and other dairy products. The industry is doing its own work on promoting milk consumption across all age groups through campaigns such as “Make Mine Milk” which is part funded by the EU.DairyCo is the levy funded body for the dairy sector. Their total annual budget is approximately £8m and £500,000 of this is spent on marketing development.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Electronic Government

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins: My Department does not provide any transactional services to the general public as such. The Planning Inspectorate provides a planning appeals service; information about its electronic transactions can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/performance/transactions-explorer/department/dclg/by-transactions-per-year/descendingMy Department will shortly be introducing secondary legislation to facilitate council papers being sent to councillors in an electronic format. The newly updated local government Transparency Code will ensure that more information about councils’ activities is available for online scrutiny. Earlier this year, we amended legislation to allow council meetings to be reported through digital media.

Local Government Finance

Andy Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish an analysis of the savings from local authorities' transformational schemes set against the timescales involved.

Kris Hopkins: My Department is supporting transformational schemes across local authorities in England and has published the projected savings from schemes funded through the Transformation Challenge Award. In September 2014, 32 local authorities were awarded £8.6 million to deliver transformational projects with projected savings of up to £100 million over the next 10 years. In November 2014, 73 local authorities, working in partnership with other parts of the public sector were awarded £89.4 million to deliver large scale transformational projects, with projected savings estimated to be over £900 million over the next 10 years. On-going monitoring and accountability for these savings will be the responsibility of individual authorities and their partners.

Local Government: Interpreters

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on their obligation to provide interpreter services.

Stephen Williams: In March 2013, my Department published new guidance for local authorities outlining how councils should stop translating and interpreting into foreign languages. As outlined in the Written Ministerial Statement of 12 March 2013, Official Report, Column 5WS, such interpretation and translation: weakens integration; discourages communities from learning English; undermines rather than strengthens equality goals; harms community relations; and is an expensive waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when councils need to be making sensible savings.

Planning Permission

Guy Opperman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library a copy of section A85 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

Brandon Lewis: A copy of the National Planning Policy Framework is available in the Library of the House and on the following website:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6077/2116950.pdfThere is no 'section A85', but the section entitled Protecting Green Belt land includes paragraph 85 which sets out policy on how Green Belt boundaries should be defined. Below is a link to recent Green Belt guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-further-strengthen-green-belt-protections

Tenancy Deposit Schemes

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many deposit resolution scheme claims were resolved in favour of the (a) landlord and (b) tenant in the last 12 months.

Brandon Lewis: On average between April 2013 and end of March 2014 42% of disputes were resolved in favour of the landlord and 58% in favour of the tenant. Detail for the individual schemes is provided in the table below: SchemeTotal Number of disputes% in favour of Landlord% in favour ofTenantDeposit Protection Scheme Custodial8,9454357Deposit Protection Scheme Insurance125050MyDeposits6,5903070Tenancy Deposit Scheme9,4824951

HM Treasury

VAT

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assistance and advice his Department is providing to small digital supply businesses potentially adversely affected by recent changes in the designation of place of supply in VAT regulations.

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on small digital supply businesses of recent changes in designation of place of supply in VAT regulations.

Mr David Gauke: A Tax Information and Impact Note was published on 10 December 2013 which included an assessment of the impact on small and micro businesses. It is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/264647/Overview_of_legislation_in_draft.pdf   HMRC has provided a significant amount of information about the VAT rule changes on the GOV.UK website, including highlighting to businesses the simplification options available to them to help them comply with the changes. HMRC has also organised a Twitter Clinic and published answers to the main questions as well as a list of ‘Top Tips’ for businesses. HMRC has also created a special e-mail address (vat2015.contact@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk) where businesses can send HMRC any specific enquiries they may have.

Inheritance Tax

Duncan Hames: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in (a) Wiltshire, (b) London and (c) the UK paid inheritance tax in each of the last four years for which figures are available.

Mr David Gauke: These figures are publically available in table 12.10 of Inheritance Tax Official Statistics. The latest version for estates left as a result of deaths in 2011-12 is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/338989/140729Table12-10DUChecked.pdf.

Revenue and Customs

Guto Bebb: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that HM Revenue and Customs' MP helplines are easily accessible for hon. Members and their staff.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs operates some dedicated MP telephone hotlines and the contact information is available on the MPs website

Revenue and Customs

Guto Bebb: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will establish a dedicated VAT helpline for the offices of hon. Members to assist them in dealing with cases on behalf of constituents.

Mr David Gauke: HMRC has no plans to establish a dedicated VAT helpline for the offices of Members of Parliament. HMRC receives far fewer enquiries from the public and MPs on business taxes such as VAT than for personal tax and benefits issues. In general, MPs seem content to write to HMRC about business tax issues or to use the existing call centre lines. This best meets the need of business taxpayers and MPs as often the issues are detailed and complex.

Income Tax

Duncan Hames: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people paying higher rate tax had taxable income below £50,000 in the last year for which figures are available.

Mr David Gauke: The numbers of taxpayers paying tax at the higher rate by income range are published in the HMRC National Statistics table 2.5. This is available on the internet at the following address; https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306857/Table_2.5.pdf These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) outturn data up to 2011-12, and then projected to 2014-15 in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Microgeneration

Andrew Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the proportion of energy production accounted for by micro-generation in the next three years.

Matthew Hancock: Installations of electricity microgeneration technologies (<50kW) are supported by Feed-In Tariffs (FITs). The FITs scheme was launched in April 2010. Under FITs the latest available estimated generation figures for microgeneration technologies are 2.7 TWh in 2014/15. We have not published any projections for FITs further into the future.Installations of microgeneration heat technologies (<45kW) are supported by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The domestic RHI scheme launched in April 2014. Our estimates of the amount of heat that will be generated from installations under domestic RHI are 0.1TWh 2014/15 and 0.4TWh in 2015/16 (a small number of installations may be larger than 45kW).We do not produce microgeneration projections for the non-domestic RHI as the scheme is primarily aimed at larger installations, though there will be some energy produced at the microgeneration scale.

Offshore Structures: Electric Cables

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much sub-sea off-shore cabling has been laid in which areas in each of the last 30 years.

Matthew Hancock: In the last 30 years, there has been a total of 1340km of sub-sea electricity transmission cables laid in the waters surrounding the UK.This comprises 702km of licenced sub-sea offshore transmission cables1 that connect offshore wind farms in UK territorial sea and surrounding Renewable Energy Zone (REZ)2 to shore, and 638km of interconnector cables, consisting of links from the UK mainland to France, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man.Lengths provided are for sub-sea sections of cables only, and do not include onshore components that link to relevant grid connection points.Table of licenced offshore transmission projectsLicenced offshore wind farm transmission assetsSub-sea cable length (km)Year licence grantedSeaRobin Rigg East and West25.22011Irish SeaSheringham Shoal442013North SeaBarrow26.62011Irish SeaGreater Gabbard152.52013North SeaGunfleet Sands 1 and 29.32011North SeaOrmonde432012Irish SeaWallney 145.32011Irish SeaWallney 243.72012Irish SeaLincs962014North SeaLondon Array2162013North Sea Total Cable length702 Table of interconnectorsInterconnectorSub-sea cable length (km)3Laying year(s)Connection pointsSeaIFA4519864GB – Folkestone, KentFR - CalaisEnglish ChannelMoyle5320015N.I - Nr Belfast,Scotland - near StranraerIrish SeaBritNed2502009 to 20106GB - Isle of Grain,Netherlands - MaasvlakteNorth SeaEast West1862009 to 20127GB - Deeside, north Wales,Ireland - Woodland, County MeathIrish SeaIsle of Man10420008Bispham, Blackpool to Douglas, Isle of ManIrish Sea Total Cable length638 [1] Source – Ofgem. Offshore transmission is defined as all electric lines of 132 kilovolts or more which are built for the purpose of conveying electricity generated by an offshore generating station. The km length figure does not include ‘inter array’ cables that connect individual wind turbines to the nearby sub-station. 2 The REZ is an area of the sea, beyond the UK’s territorial sea, which may be exploited for energy production. A map of the REZ may be obtained from the UK Hydrographic Office - https://www.ukho.gov.uk/ProductsandServices/Services/Documents/Renewable_Energy_Web%20Page_Jan06_v2.pdf . A map of the ten offshore transmission projects tendered to date, as well as the five projects currently in Ofgem’s competitive tender process, can be found on Ofgem’s website - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/electricity/transmission-networks/offshore-transmission/offshore-transmission-tenders 3 Length provided refers to the distance between landing points and does not take into account cable configurations of the interconnectors.4[1] Refers to the year IFA was commissioned. Source: National Grid - http://faculty.london.edu/mottaviani/IFA.pdf 5 Source: Mutual Energy - http://www.mutual-energy.com/The_Moyle_Interconnector/History_and_Development_of_the_Interconnector.php 6 Source: BritNed - http://www.britned.com/BritNed/About%20Us/Construction7 Source: ABB - http://www05.abb.com/global/scot/scot221.nsf/veritydisplay/4d580b5e493d268dc1257c00003e44dc/$file/Overview%20of%20the%20500MW%20EirGrid%20East-West.pdf8 Source: AWJ Marine - http://www.awjmarine.co.uk/fishery-liaison/isle-of-man-interconnector/

Nuclear Installations

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment the Office for Nuclear Regulation has made of the threat posed to the security of nuclear facilities by unmanned aerial vehicles; and if he will make an assessment of the implications for UK nuclear infrastructure of the evidence presented to the session of the Office parlementaire d'évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques of the French parliament on 24 November 2014.

Matthew Hancock: Civil nuclear safety and security are priorities for the Government. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) regulates safety and security at UK licenced nuclear sites and site licensees are required to demonstrate appropriate security plans against a range of relevant threats, which are updated on an on-going basis. The details of these threats are not released on grounds of National Security.DECC officials are currently reviewing the evidence from the session of the French Parliament and relevant findings will be taken forward with the ONR.

Energy: Consumption

Richard Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment his Department has made of the cost to businesses of complying with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme.

Amber Rudd: The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) will help large organisations identify savings they can make on energy bills. The scheme is estimated to benefit the UK as a whole by £1.6bn (2015-2030) and participants are expected to save over £250m per year on their bills.Full details of the costs and benefits of ESOS can be found in the ESOS final stage impact assessment, published at:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/323116/ESOS_Impact_Assessment_FINAL.pdf.   



Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme IA
(PDF Document, 1.42 MB)

Fuel Poverty

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2014 to Question 214565, what assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of the proxies in determining which families are fuel poor.

Amber Rudd: In England, households in fuel poverty are those with both a low income and higher than typical energy costs. The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is directed at these households in two ways. Firstly, eligibility is linked to the receipt of means tested benefits. This helps us focus support on households with a low income. Secondly, the “scoring system” built into the policy creates a series of incentives for participating suppliers to target high cost households within this low income group, and recent changes to the ECO have straightened the incentives.While it is possible to quantify the accuracy of the benefits-related proxies used for identifying low income households, it is not possible to quantify suppliers’ exact response to the incentives for targeting higher cost homes. As such, it is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the accuracy of targeting under ECO.

Solar Power

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to paragraph 25 of the impact assessment of the Government response to the consultation on support for community energy projets under the feed-in-tariff scheme, for what reason those changes have been designed to deliver no additional overall deployment of solar PV to 2020-21; and if he will make a statement.

Amber Rudd: The changes to the community provisions of the Feed in Tariff (FITs) scheme announced on 13 November, have been designed to encourage a shift from commercial and household to community ownership of renewable electricity projects, rather than bringing forward any new additional deployment. The policy has been designed in this way to allow us to manage costs for consumers within the Levy Control Framework (LCF).This approach is in line with wider work being taken forward through the Community Energy Strategy1 and the Shared Ownership Taskforce2, to unlock barriers to community ownership of renewable electricity projects. The Community Energy Strategy estimated deployment of community projects of all sizes to range from 500MW to 3GW by 2020, with a central estimate of 600MW. [1] Community Energy Strategy (January 2014) (DECC). See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-energy-strategy 2 The Shared Ownership Taskforce includes representatives from the renewables industry and the community energy sector. They have developed a voluntary approach to increasing shared ownership of new, commercial onshore renewables developments. For further information see: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/shared-ownership-taskforce

Solar Power

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of addtional rooftop solar PV expected to be installed in 2015-16 as a result of the feed-in tariff changes announced on 2 October 2014.

Amber Rudd: The creation of separate feed-in tariff degression bands for 1) 50kW+ building-mounted/other-than-stand-alone (typically rooftop solar PV) and 2) ground mounted/stand-alone solar PV was announced on 2nd October 2014. The objective is to remove the risk of high levels of stand-alone deployment triggering degressions for the other-than-stand-alone sector which are not reflective of falls in its costs or the removal of barriers to deployment.The amount of 50kW+ other-than-stand-alone solar PV expected to be installed (deployment) in 2015-16 under a range of scenarios is set out in Table 1 of the Impact Assessment.https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/360306/FITs_solar_IA_MASTER.pdf. 



FITs & Solar Impact Assessment
(PDF Document, 263.58 KB)

Renewable Energy

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total value was of bids received during the first established technologies Contracts for Difference auction for (a) landfill gas, (b) onshore wind, (c) solar photovoltaic, (d) hydro, (e) energy from waste and (f) sewage gas.

Matthew Hancock: Holding answer received on 02 December 2014



This information is not held by the Department. National Grid is the Delivery Body for the allocation of Contracts for Difference. Regulations limit the information released to the Department during and after the allocation process, for example because it is commercially confidential or where its release could undermine the efficiency of the auction process.We intend to provide information on those applicants who are successful and sign contracts when the allocation process concludes next year. Information which will be made available includes the technology type, capacity, delivery year and strike price of successful projects.

Electric Cables

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the £500 million provision for undergrounding old transmission lines in the UK's protected areas announced by Ofgem on 10 November 2014 covers Scottish National Parks and National Scenic Areas; by what process candidate undergrounding projects are being identified; and what steps Ofgem is taking to ensure that such funds are distributed equitably across England, Wales and Scotland.

Matthew Hancock: The Visual Impact Provision (VIP) applies to National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales, and National Scenic Areas in Scotland. The allowance is available for all of Great Britain’s electricity Transmission Owners to address the impact of existing lines in these areas. To participate in the scheme Transmission Owners are required to develop and submit a policy to Ofgem for approval. National Grid has set out a policy and process for deciding how to allocate funding in its licence area of England and Wales. National Grid’s VIP policy and process have both been approved by Ofgem following consultation with stakeholders. Further information is available at www.nationalgrid.com/VIP. The Scottish Transmission Owners have not developed a policy, so funding is not currently available in Scotland.

Cabinet Office

Suicide

Paul Burstow: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many suicides there have been (a) in total and (b) per 100,000 population in (i) England in total and (ii) each constituency in each month of the last 15 years.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



Excel Sheet for Member - Suicides
(Excel SpreadSheet, 59.5 KB)




ONS Letter to Member - Suicides
(PDF Document, 135.77 KB)

Cardiovascular System: Diseases

Paul Burstow: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths from cardiovascular disease there were in (a) England and (b) each parliamentary constituency in the last 10 years.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



Excel Sheet for Member - Cardiovascular Disease
(Excel SpreadSheet, 46.97 KB)




ONS Letter to Member - Cardiovascular Disease
(PDF Document, 121.68 KB)

Big Society Network

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in June 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Minister will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and Giles Gibbons in December 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society, the Big Society Network and other charities in December 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in May 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in October 2012.

Mr Rob Wilson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 December 2014 to PQs UIN216289, UIN216290, UIN216291,UIN216292 and UIN216293.

Government Departments: Political Impartiality

Chris Bryant: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the phrase 'long-term economic plan' or the content of that policy is covered by Crown copyright; and whether permission has been given to non-governmental organisations to reproduce that phrase or the content of that policy in their marketing and communications.

Chris Bryant: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any civil servant has issued advice to political parties on the use of the phrase 'long-term economic plan' or the content of that policy in their marketing and communications.

Mr Francis Maude: The phrase “long- term economic plan” is not covered by Crown copyright. Nor has the civil service issued advice to the political parties on the use of the phrase.

Immigration

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the reasons for entry of non-EU migrants were in the last five years; and how many such migrants entered for each such reason.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



ONS Letter to Member - Non EU Migrants
(PDF Document, 186.31 KB)

Overseas Students

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many non-EU students came to the UK to study in the last year.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many non-EU students remained in the UK for more that one year after the completion of their studies.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many EU students came to study in the UK in the last year.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



ONS Letter to Member - Non EU Students
(PDF Document, 108.07 KB)

Energy

Simon Kirby: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to insulate his departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Francis Maude: In 70 Whitehall external walls and roof spaces are insulated; all new pipework has thermal insulation; and, windows on the east and west elevations having secondary glazing. The building also benefits from heat recovery in the plant rooms to heat some hot water and a bore hole that draws water from an aquifer to provide sustainable free cooling in summer.Cabinet Office also incorporates lighting control mechanisms via presence detection and daylight sensors into its core buildings.

Department for Culture Media and Sport

Holidays

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to promote holidays in the UK to British residents; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Helen Grant: Supported by more than £8 million of investment by the Government, VisitEngland continues to run the biggest ever domestic tourism campaign, ‘Holidays at Home are GREAT’. The first two campaigns in 2012 and 2013 resulted in £380 million incremental spend generated by domestic visitors across Britain. A third campaign was launched at the end of March 2014. Supported by £19.8 million from the Regional Growth Fund, VisitEngland are also promoting and developing domestic tourism through its ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ campaign, which aims to increase visits and incremental tourism spend, and in doing so, grow jobs in the tourism sector.

Odyssey Marine Exploration

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations his Department has received from (a) Dr Sean Kingsley of Odyssey Maritime Exploration and the Maritime Heritage Foundation and (b) Greg Stemm of Odyssey Maritime Exploration since 2010.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Since 2010, DCMS has received a number of representations from Dr Sean Kingsley on behalf of Wreck Watch International. A representation was received from Greg Stemm of Odyssey Maritime Exploration in response to the 2010 public consultation on options for the management of the wreck site of HMS VICTORY (1744).

HMS Victory

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what arrangements his Department is making for direct, on board ship monitoring of the work on the HMS Victory 1744 wreck site by independent archaeologists.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Phased fieldwork on the site will be controlled by the Maritime Heritage Foundation (MHF) and its Scientific Advisory Committee, chaired by Dr Margaret Rule CBE, who led the project to raise the Mary Rose, and will follow the agreed Project Design. Extensive scientific progress reports will be provided to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to use in decisions to consent to further work. The MOD has the right to inspect any work being conducted at the site and a commitment has been given that the quality of archaeological work on the project will meet or exceed requirements. Examples of scientific reports documenting the non-disturbance phases of the project design are available for public review at www.victory1744.org/publications. In addition, any licences that may be granted to the MHF by the Marine Management Organisation for works relating to the wreck of HMS Victory 1744 may include a condition requiring monitoring of the activities by an independent archaeologist if that is considered appropriate.

HMS Victory

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has been subject to any threat of legal action by the Maritime Heritage Foundation or the Odyssey Marine Exploration regarding the recovery of material from HMS Victory 1744.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether every item of cultural material from the HMS Victory 1744 wreck site will be accessioned by the Maritime Heritage Foundation for deposition in one complete museum archive as is required by the UNESCO Annex and Key Management Principles.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which museum will be taking the Accessioned Collection of material from HMS Victory 1744.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether (a) completion bonds and (b) other financial arrangements were put in place before granting the Maritime Heritage Foundation permission to recover surface items deemed at risk from the wreck of HMS Victory 1744; and what specific communications he has had with his Ministerial counterparts on this matter.

Mr Edward Vaizey: There has been no threat of legal action by the Maritime Heritage Foundation or Odyssey Marine Exploration. Since 2008, when Odyssey Marine Exploration discovered the wreck of HMS Victory 1744, the site has been regularly monitored and the reports of several site surveys have been submitted to the Government. Environmental studies of the site’s sedimentology and suitability for in situ preservation and the wreck’s marine biological profile have been completed and the information included in the Project Design has been considered by the Advisory Group and Expert Panel. In addition, Wessex Archaeology produced two independent reports in 2009, which can be found at http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/reports/71070/hms-victory-1744.   The project will follow applicable UK law, conditions of the Deed of Gift and the archaeological principles set out in Annex A of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. All cultural items transferred under the Deed of Gift will be accessioned into the ‘Victory 1744 Collection’ along with the associated archive, including site plans, drawings and photographs. The Maritime Heritage Foundation has committed to managing and curating the Collection in line with the Museum Association’s Code of Ethics for Museums. No items transferred under the Deed of Gift may be sold or disposed without the consent of the Secretary of State for Defence. The Maritime Heritage Foundation has committed to public display and access to the ‘Victory 1744 Collection’, and is in discussion with a UK museum and any agreement will be announced at the appropriate time.   Funding for the approved next stage of the project (recovery of at-risk surface items, subject to a licence by the Marine Management Organisation), which has been discussed by officials from MOD and the Department for Culture Media and Sport officials, as part of the assessment of the Project Design, is underwritten by a financial bond provided by Odyssey Marine Exploration and held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

HMS Victory

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many reports from independent companies and subject experts in sea bed restoration and conservation the Maritime Heritage Foundation tabled to the Experts Panel and Advisory Group in respect of the wreck of HMS Victory 1744.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Since 2008 when Odyssey Marine Exploration (OME) discovered the wreck of HMS Victory 1744, the site has been regularly monitored and the reports of several site surveys have been submitted to the Government. Environmental studies of the site’s sedimentology and suitability for in situ preservation and the wreck’s marine biological profile have been completed by the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the University of Huelva, Spain. The information included in the Project Design has been considered by the Advisory Group and Expert Panel. In addition, Wessex Archaeology produced two independent reports in 2009, which can be found at http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/reports/71070/hms-victory-1744.

Telecommunications

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of providing alternative leased line providers with passive infrastructure access and the effect of this on consumers.

Mr Edward Vaizey: I have not made any assessment of the impact on consumers of providing passive remedies for alternative leased line providers. Ofcom is responsible for telecommunications market regulation. It carries out a rolling programme of market reviews of competition in communications markets to ensure that regulation remains appropriate and proportionate in the light of changing market conditions. Following a market review, Ofcom can impose regulatory remedies to address competition concerns which vary according to the market and services being provided. Ofcom is currently conducting a review of competition in the supply of leased line services in the UK (the Business Connectivity Market Review, or BCMR). As part of that review a preliminary consultation was published last month on the role that passive remedies might play in addressing competition concerns in the market for leased line services.

Mobile Phones: Competition

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to direct Ofcom to conduct a pre-auction review of mobile sector competition before the sale of the 1400MHz and 700 MHz spectrum bands.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the report of the National Audit Office entitled 4G radio spectrum auction: lessons learned, published on 12 March 2014, HC 968, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on the recommendation that pre-auction reviews of competition be conducted in future spectrum releases.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Ofcom, in performing its statutory duties in relation to award of rights to use spectrum, conducts impact assessments of each award. This includes assessing how an award would further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition. It is for Ofcom in the first instance to consider whether a pre-auction review of competition is necessary or justified. Ofcom, properly, consults on how they propose to design spectrum awards and on their impact assessments.

Gaming Machines

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will commission research on the effects on consumers of fixed odds betting terminals which is based on analysis of the operation of a live terminal.

Mrs Helen Grant: The government is committed to following an evidence based approach towards gambling legislation. The Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT) ​has recently carried out ​a significant programme of research into gaming machine usage​, which was published on Monday 1st December​. We now want to consider carefully the depth of findings and are taking advice from key organisations such as the Gambling Commission before thinking about next steps. I look forward to seeing the industry taking full advantage of the information provided by this research to bear down hard on the harm that gambling can cause.

Mobile Phones: Rural Areas

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to support the roll-out of mobile communications infrastructure in rural areas.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Government has invested £150m to build infrastructure to provide coverage to some of the UK premises where there is currently no basic mobile coverage for voice calls or text messages. BDUK has successfully brokered agreements between the key Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to share the costs of using new infrastructure. Last year the Government also introduced planning changes for mobile infrastructure to facilitate network deployment, further supporting extending rural mobile coverage.

Mobile Phones

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of spectrum caps in the 2012 4G auction.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The spectrum caps in the 2012 4G auction ensured that no mobile spectrum licensee secured spectrum holdings that would give them a decisive competitive advantage over the other operators. In its report on the auction, the NAO concluded that Ofcom achieved its objective to maintain a competitive market. [p.6, 4G radio spectrum auction: lessons learned, 6 March 2014]

Mobile Phones: Competition

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the levels of competition in the mobile backhaul market.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on the cost of mobile backhaul and leased lines in rural areas.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations his Department has received from BT on mobile backhaul.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Ofcom, the independent regulator, is currently undertaking a review of the market for leased lines, which are used for mobile backhaul and for other applications. Ofcom published a call for inputs on 1 April 2014, as well as two interim consultations. The Regulator intends to publish full proposals for consultation in Spring 2015 and this will include an analysis of issues in relation to mobile backhaul. The current regulatory controls on BT’s charges for leased lines, including those used for mobile backhaul, expire in April 2016. BT has made no representations to DCMS about mobile backhaul. However, in the company’s response to the DCMS consultation on its Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy, BT made it clear that it was opposed to the mandating of ‘dark fibre’ access to its network. Access to dark fibre would enable other providers to compete with BT more easily in the provision of various communications services, including mobile backhaul, although BT’s response did not highlight this use. I have had no discussions with Ofcom on the cost of mobile backhaul and leased lines in rural areas. The information collected by Ofcom, referred to above, will inform any such discussion in the future.

Telecommunications

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the proposals of the Law Commission on reform of the Electronic Communications Code published on 27 February 2013.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to bring forward proposals to amend the Electronic Communications Code in line with the recommendations of the Law Commission published on 27 February 2013.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Since the publication of the Law Commission’s report on the Electronic Communications Code, DCMS has been considering the implications of the recommendations on network roll out and service provision to consumers. In January 2014, we published an economic analysis of the impacts of various wayleave valuation regimes. A copy of this report has been placed in the House of Commons library.I will make public my plans to reform the Electronic Communications Code shortly.

Telecommunications

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with Ofcom about the recommendations of the Law Commission on reform of the Electronic Communications Code published on 27 February 2013.

Mr Edward Vaizey: I regularly meet Ofcom to discuss a range of issues across its remit as the communications regulator in the UK.

Energy

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to insulate his departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Helen Grant: DCMS is a tenant of HMRC at 100 Parliament Street and responsibility for insulation rests with them.

House of Commons Commission

House of Commons

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what plans the Commission has to publish a vision and strategy document for the future of the House.

John Thurso: The current strategy for the House of Commons Service, which covers the period 2013 to 2017, was endorsed by the Commission in January 2013. It is published on the Parliament website at: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/management-board/management-board-publications1/hoc-strategy/.The Management Board has started the process of drawing up a strategy for the next Parliament, which will build on the current one. This will draw on the views of Members, as well as a large-scale consultation exercise with staff. Emerging ideas will be discussed with the Commission in the new year, the intention is then to take the draft strategy to the new Commission in the 2015 Parliament for its agreement. I have noted the hon. Member’s suggestion to the Governance Committee that the vision should be “This House exists to serve the people of this country and the people who represent them”, and that seems to me an important point to reflect in the House Service’s strategy.

Department of Health

Services for Children and Young People With Speech Language and Communication Needs Review

Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the Bercow Review of support for children and young people with speech, language and communications needs.

Dr Daniel Poulter: There was a comprehensive range of actions undertaken to implement the recommendations of the Bercow Review. The forum for ensuring an effective, coordinated approach across sectors is the Communication Council (as recommended by the Review), which involves Government Departments and the Communication Trust. In particular, the Council is supporting the implementation of the new statutory framework for children and young people with special educational needs and disability, which provides a basis for ensuring children’s communication needs are recognised and supported, as part of a person-centred approach to assessing, planning and securing their education, health and care.

Dementia: Lancashire

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of adults in (a) Pendle constituency and (b) Lancashire have been diagnosed with dementia in each of the last 10 years.

Norman Lamb: Information is not available in the format requested.   Information on the number of patients on the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) dementia register and the raw prevalence rate for the specified organisations are shown in the following tables.   Data are shown for each of the last eight years only due to the inclusion of dementia on the QOF register from 2006-07.   Number of patients on the QOF dementia register, and the raw prevalence rate for East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and East Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT).   East LancashireNumber of practicesTotal list sizeDementia register countsDementia prevalence ratesEast Lancashire CCG31 March 201459371,6082,3230.63%31 March 201361367,8912,1970.60% East Lancashire PCT31 March 201265386,1872,1830.57%31 March 201167388,3241,9750.51%31 March 201067388,2671,8480.48%31 March 200965388,3451,7150.44%31 March 200865387,5431,7740.46%31 March 200765386,2601,7440.45% Number of patients on the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) dementia register, and the raw prevalence rate for the whole of Lancashire.   All LancashireNumber of practicesTotal list sizeDementia register countsDementia prevalence ratesLancashire Area Team131 March 20142311,519,89210,4080.68%31 March 20132351,520,3939,6550.64% Total of Lancashire PCTs231 March 20122371,520,5888,9330.59%31 March 20112401,514,7008,0460.53%31 March 20102441,514,4837,5380.50%31 March 20092431,513,1667,1180.47%31 March 20082441,505,9346,9110.46%31 March 20072481,497,0746,8120.46% Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)   Notes:Data are shown for each of the last eight years due to the inclusion of dementia on the QOF register from only 2006-07.Data are not available by constituency but are shown by East PCT and East Lancashire CCG due to NHS organisational changes in 2013.Data are for all patients.The number of people recorded on practice disease registers is available in the QOF, published by the HSCIC. The numbers of diagnoses are not available but the numbers of people on the dementia register are available. This is a measure of prevalence rather than incidence.The number of patients on clinical registers can be used to calculate disease prevalence, expressing the number of patients on each register as a percentage of the number of patients on practices’ lists. Therefore ‘raw prevalence’ for a clinical area is defined as: Raw prevalence = (number on clinical register / number on practice list) * 100The objective of the QOF is to improve the quality of care patients are given by rewarding practices for the quality of care they provide to their patients. QOF is therefore an incentive payment scheme. Participation by practices is entirely voluntary, though participation rates are high.As QOF registers are constructed to underpin indicators on quality of care, they do not necessarily equate to prevalence as may be defined by epidemiologists. For example, prevalence figures based on QOF registers may differ from prevalence figures from other sources because of coding or definitional issues.The Lancashire Area Team consists of: - NHS Blackburn with Darwen CCG - NHS Blackpool CCG - NHS Chorley and South Ribble CCG - NHS East Lancashire CCG - NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG - NHS Greater Preston CCG - NHS Lancashire North CCG - NHS West Lancashire CCG 9. The Lancashire PCTs making up the totals are: - Blackburn with Darwen PCT - Blackpool PCT - Central Lancashire PCT - East Lancashire Teaching PCT (previously East Lancashire PCT) - North Lancashire Teaching PCT (previously North Lancashire PCT)

Mental Health Services: Lancashire

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for talking therapies in (a) Pendle constituency and (b) Lancashire.

Norman Lamb: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset contains information on referrals to IAPT services which provide talking therapies. Information is provided both for East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and for all eight Lancashire CCGs combined for the year 2013-14. East Lancashire CCG includes Pendle constituency and the CCG is the smallest geographical breakdown available.   Table 1: The number of referrals entering treatment1 in the year, with mean and median waiting times (days), for IAPT services in 2013-14. Data shown for East Lancashire CCG2 and for all eight Lancashire CCGs combined. Organisation nameReferrals entering treatmentMean waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)Median3 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)  NHS East Lancashire CCG3,495104.684  Combined Lancashire CCGs15,6358956 Notes: 1In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment (an appointment with a therapy type recorded) in the year. 2CCG is based on general practitioner (GP) Practice. Where GP Practice is not recorded, or cannot be assigned to a CCG, the referral is categorised as 'Unknown'. 3Medians have been rounded up to the nearest whole number.Waiting time is measured by counting the number of days between a referral being received and the first treatment appointment. For 2013-14, the presence of a valid therapy type is used as an indicator of whether treatment was provided in the course of the appointment.   Entering treatment figures, except England totals, are rounded to the nearest 5. It is generally advised that the median is used as the most reliable measure of average waitingtime, as this accounts for any outliers in the data. Lancashire CCGs are:East Lancashire CCGLancashire North CCGWest Lancashire CCGBlackburn with Darwen CCGBlackpool CCGChorley and South Ribble CCGFylde and Wyre CCGGreater Preston CCG Source: [Health and Social Care Information Centre,Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Dataset]

Blood: Contamination

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff are employed by the (a) Macfarlane Trust and (b) Caxton Foundation; and what their (i) posts and (ii) current salaries are.

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what change there has been in the salary of the Chief Executive of the Macfarlane Trust and Caxton Foundation since her appointment in 2013.

Jane Ellison: The amount of time that each member of staff spends working on either Macfarlane Trust business or Caxton Foundation business is given in the following table:% of time spent on Caxton Foundation% of time spent on Macfarlane TrustChief Executive4848Director of Finance2727Finance Assistant3232Director of Operations4747Support Services Officer0100Welfare Assistant1000Office Manager5050IT Manager1313   The Caxton Foundation cannot provide details of the salaries of these individuals because salaries are personal information under section 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998. However, as with all charities, the pay bands of the highest paid members of staff are a matter of public record. The Caxton Foundation’s annual report and accounts for 2013-14, state that one member of staff received a salary in the pay band of £70,001 - £80,000. That salary was paid in respect of work for both the Caxton Foundation and the Macfarlane Trust. All employees of who were employed at 1 April 2014 received a 1% salary increase. That is the only pay increase that the Chief Executive has received since her appointment in 2013.

Blood: Contamination

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were registered with (a) the Macfarlane Trust, (b) the Skipton Fund and (c) the Caxton Foundation in each year since 2011.

Jane Ellison: The number of people registered with the Macfarlane Trust, the Skipton Fund and the Caxton Foundation, from 2011-12 to the most recent full year for which the Department has figures are as follows:2011-122012-132013-14Skipton Fund4,9085,0385,132Caxton Foundation505555695Macfarlane Trust549608599   The Skipton Fund figures relate to successful stage 1 applications in respect of infected claimants, but it is not known how many of these people are currently still alive. The Caxton Foundation and Macfarlane Fund figures are the number of living beneficiaries at 31 March in each of the specified years, and includes both infected and uninfected beneficiaries.

Mental Health Services

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of local authority budget reductions between 2010 and 2015 on the provision of services relating to mental illness in (a) Birmingham and (b) England.

Norman Lamb: No assessment has been made of the effect of local authority spending on the provision of services relating to mental illness.   However, there are three indicators in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework that relate specifically to mental health:   Proportion of adults in contact with secondary mental health services in paid employment  BirminghamEngland2010/119.4%9.5%2011/127.3%8.9%2012/133.5%8.8%2013/145.0%7.1%   Proportion of adults in contact with secondary mental health services who live independently, with or without support  BirminghamEngland2010/1163.7%66.8%2011/1215.1%54.6%2012/1332.2%58.5%2013/1466.6%60.9%   Permanent admissions of younger adults (aged 18 to 64) with mental health problems to residential and nursing care homes, per 100,000 population  BirminghamEngland2010/113.44.42011/125.34.32012/134.94.52013/146.94.4

NHS: Standards

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress the Government has made on implementing proposals set out in his Department's publication Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First.

Dr Daniel Poulter: Since the publication of Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First, the Government has taken huge strides to boost safety, transparency, compassion and accountability in the National Health Service. We have legislated to make the Care Quality Commission independent, and a new rigorous inspection regime for hospitals, primary care and adult social care has been introduced, resulting in a clear rating on the quality of care. We have also introduced a robust special measures regime for struggling hospitals, so that poor care is identified and rectified. In addition, we have legislated to place a new duty of candour and fit and person requirement for directors of NHS bodies, as well as to create a new offence of wilful neglect and ill treatment. This Government has also placed an unprecedented amount of data on the MyNHS website, so that the public can see how their local services perform.

Accident and Emergency Departments: Greater London

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people arrived at accident and emergency departments in each NHS foundation trust in London during the last weekend of November 2014; and how many such people were not admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours of their arrival.

Jane Ellison: The information is not currently available in the format requested. NHS England currently publishes on its website the total number of weekly accident and emergency (A&E) attendances for all NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, showing the number of attendees discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours of arrival. NHS England will publish data relating to A&E attendances for the week ending 30 November 2014 on 5 December 2014.

Land

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made on the disposal of his Department's surplus land; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Daniel Poulter: The Department is fully committed to supporting the Government’s programme to release surplus land for 100,000 homes by the end of March 2015. The Department has made a significant contribution to this initiative having sold land to support for more 3,000 homes. The Department’s ‘family’ as a whole, which includes NHS Property Services and the wider National Health Service, has sold land with capacity for more than 11,250 homes up to the end of September 2014.

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received about the decision by North Devon Healthcare Trust to centralise stroke services in Ottery St Mary; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the compatibility with the NHS constitution of the changes to services proposed by NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received about the changes to services proposed by NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group from (a) the Royal College of Surgeons, (b) other professional bodies, (c) bodies representing people with fertility problems and (d) members of the public.

Jane Ellison: The provision of health services in line with the NHS Constitution is the responsibility of the local clinical commissioning group (CCG).   A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 44 items of correspondence about changes to services proposed by Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG received in the last six months. This is a minimum figure which represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.   All correspondence was from members of the public, and predominantly relates to proposed service changes in community hospitals in the area. One item of correspondence related to proposed changes at Ottery St Mary Hospital, and two related to the commissioning changes recently proposed by the CCG.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2014 to Question 215768, where responsibility lies for holding clinical commissioning groups to account on the steps they are taking to ensure 95 per cent compliance with the Care Programme follow-up within seven days of discharge.

Norman Lamb: NHS England has a key role to ensure that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), as statutory organisations, deliver the best possible services and outcomes for patients within their financial allocation, including the delivery of NHS standard contracts. The CCG Assurance Framework, published in November 2013, sets out how NHS England assures that CCGs are effectively fulfilling their duties.

Vaccination: Compensation

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the provisions of the Vaccine Damaged Payments Act 1979 to people who are damaged by a vaccine administered when they are over the age of 18.

Jane Ellison: The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme established under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act (VDPA) 1979 essentially covers diseases that are protected against through the routine childhood vaccination programme. However the scheme also covers people over the age of 18 years for the following diseases: poliomyelitis; rubella; meningococcal group C (meningitis C); human papillomavirus (HPV); pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 (swine flu) [up to 31 August 2010]; or during an outbreak of a specified disease against which the person was vaccinated in the United Kingdom or Isle of Man. Vaccination must have been given in the UK or Isle of Man or, as part of Armed Forces medical treatment while abroad.   There are currently no plans to make changes to the VDPA.

Suicide

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of black and minority ethnic lesbian and bisexual women who have contemplated suicide.

Norman Lamb: The Department has made no such estimate. However, our suicide prevention strategy, Preventing suicide in England: A cross-government outcomes strategy to save lives published in 2012, recognises that tailored approaches to mental health are necessary in specific groups.   The strategy recognises that a tailored approach should be taken to the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and black, Asian and minority ethnic groups if their suicide risk is to be reduced.   The strategy is also backed by £1.5 million funding for suicide prevention research, investing over three years into six projects. One of these projects intends to understand lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual adolescents’ suicide, self-harm and help-seeking behaviour.

Vaccination: Compensation

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the provisions of the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 to other vaccines including those against (a) seasonal influenza and (b) hepatitis C.

Jane Ellison: Awards under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) established under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act (VDPA) 1979 are considered in respect of diseases listed in the VDPA rather than specific vaccines.   With a few exceptions, the scheme essentially covers diseases that are protected against through the routine childhood vaccination programme. There are plans to include childhood influenza, other than pandemic influenza, among the diseases covered by the Act. There are no plans to include adult influenza disease under the VDPS.   There is currently no vaccination programme for hepatitis C disease.

Women and Equalities

Science: Females

Sir Peter Luff: To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, how the Government Equalities Office pilot project to improve links between schools and businesses to raise the career aspirations of young people, which has been awarded to the British Chambers of Commerce, will be co-ordinated with the work in this area at (a) Engineering UK, (b) the Royal Academy of Engineering, (c) the Royal Society and (d) STEMnet.

Jo Swinson: The aim of the School-Business Partnerships pilot is to establish long lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships in which schools and businesses work together. The primary focus of the partnerships is on business, particularly local business, rather than national organisations. In addition, each partnership is focusing on the sectors best suited to the local area. Four out of the five partnerships have incorporated some element of STEM activity in their programme. For example, two have partnered with STEM Ambassadors to deliver activities in schools and one partnership is hosting an event with The Royal Academy of Engineering next year. In addition, Government has shared information on the activities of Engineering UK, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society and STEMnet with the British Chambers of Commerce.